Seriously, How Hard is it to Remember a Gun in Your Purse?

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We’ve all heard the motto that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. But when a gun discharges accidentally, seems to me that the gun has to take the rap.

It is surprising how many homicidal guns there are. One in Florida picked Mother’s Day to make its move.

A woman went to Starbucks with her friend, “forgetting” that she had a fully-loaded .25 caliber semi-automatic gun in her purse. I suppose she reached into her purse multiple times a day, felt the cold hard steel, and kept fumbling around in there thinking only, “where the hell are the damn car keys?” Maybe every time she touched the gun she mistook it for the NRA-issue dildo she kept in there too, I don’t know. Oh, she also forgot to get a concealed carry weapons license, so it was illegal to carry the gun in her purse to begin with.

Did I mention this was in Florida? Read Carl Hiaasen’s entire oeuvre and a healthy dose of Dave Barry for an education on that state’s special brand of crazy. They make a strong case that bringing guns and dildos when one goes to Starbucks is not particularly noteworthy behavior for some segments of that population. According to the Huffington Post, Florida is also known as the Gunshine State.

Anyway, this woman in the Starbucks in Florida put her bag down on the floor. Local police report that it “hit the ground pretty hard.” I should think it did, what with the gun and the keys and the weird dildo and whatever other metal she stored in there. The gun didn’t like that jolt, so it spat out a bullet. Right into the woman’s friend’s leg. (Makes me think of Dick Cheney. Keep your friends close, but out of shooting range.)

It seems that the injury was not severe; the victim was treated and released from a hospital. She said she didn’t realize she was shot until she saw the blood on her leg.

Accidental shootings are usually much more serious than this, and when children are involved, much more somber. As South Carolina sheriff Rick Clark said, ”No matter how tough a cop you are, no matter how many people you have prosecuted – doesn’t matter who you are. When kids are involved it’s a whole different situation.”

Sadly it is a common situation.

A 5-year-old accidentally shot his 2-year-old sister to death on April 30th with a rifle his parents gave him in a widely-publicized rural southern Kentucky tragedy. In the family’s community, children routinely receive guns before first grade, Salon reported.

In Denton, Texas, an 8-year-old accidentally shot his 5-year-old friend on May 11th. After two days the victim died of his injuries.

A 4-year-old shot and killed his six-year-old neighbor in New Jersey on May 13th.

Also in Florida, a 3-year-old accidentally fatally shot himself with his uncle’s gun in early May.

One week earlier in Florida, a 13-year-old shot his 6-year-old sister in the chest.

All of these shootings of children by children occurred within a little over a month, and this list is not exhaustive. It’s easy to laugh about the stupidity of adults who “forget” they are carrying concealed loaded semi-automatic weapons but who don’t seriously injure anybody. It’s not funny when children find those adults’ forgotten, misplaced or carelessly tossed aside weapons and use them with lethal, irreversible results.

When we can’t figure out which adults can be trusted with guns, what are we doing making them available to kids? Is it really that important for children to shoot animals to death? Forget important — should it even be allowed?

What does it teach children when they get their own little gun with attractive swirly colors and go out with the adults for an exciting excursion that revolves around killing innocent, fleeing beings? These are living creatures who may have young, mates, or packs who need them, not to mention their own fierce desire to live. When life is valued so little, it’s no wonder that people pop guns into their purses as if they were packs of chewing gum and head out for espresso. No big deal, it’s just a murdering tool.

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176 comments

Rolf P & James H. ~~~ It sure does make it seem like they don't want their thread taken seriously when they rather discuss obsessions with electron makeup boyfriends.. Maybe she takes one with her where every she goes.. I hope she has the safety on when she carries it in her purse... It might be embaressing to have it going off in an important meeting with her boss. I guess the other side shows how desperate some are to draw attention to a subject. I used to think this was a family site.

Well;
Seriously, how hard is it to write an article that has nothing to do with sex and not use the word, dildo three times?

Seriously, how hard is it to write an article that children can read?

Seriously, is this author insinuating that all women who carry handguns also carry dildos?
Or is she assuming that all women, across the board, carry dildos in their purses?
And does she (Piper) make this assumption just because she carries a dildo in her purse?

Seriously, what does dildos have to do with firearms anyway?

Damn, I pull up an article thinking Im going to read something constructive and insightful regarding gun control and find myself reading about women who carry dildos in their purses,. again, Damn!

(Piper does have cute dimples, though, maybe I should write an article about dimples and somehow work dildos into the article )

I do not want a gun anywhere near me. My husband was career military & he told me if I was to have a gun & heard a noise in the middle of the nite I could be shooting one of my kids.
He bought a 22 rifle when our oldest was a baby, shot a rabbit with it. That was the only time that gun was ever fired. After he died, over 50 yrs later, I sold that unused gun to a neighbor, a former police officer, just to get it out of the house so it wouldn't be stolen by some nut who would go on a shooting spree!